Samara Things to Do

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The Samara Regional Museum is one of the oldest museums in the Volga museum, although the main building is relatively new - it was built in 1989 and has 2500 sq metres of exhibition space. It's rather more modern than most regional museums and has exhibitions that date from pre-historic (including some dinosaur-like skeletons) through to the space age (there's a pretty cool space capsule in the entrance hall). Among some of the things to see are typical animals of the region, a cabinet full of various (clothing) irons through the ages (!), models of typical people of the region and an absolutely huge mural of Lenin's head. It wasn't my favourite thing to do in Samara but some parts of it were pretty interesting and it wasn't expensive.

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Lenin (known at the time by his original name of Ulyanov) lived in this house after leaving university in Kazan' from 1890 to 1893. During this time Lenin was preparing to take exams in order to be able to study law at St Petersbury University. It was in Samara that Lenin first became interested in Marxism. The house became a museum in 1940. The house belonged to a merchant family and on the ground floor was a shop and Lenin and his family lived upstairs. The museum is very well-looked after and a ticket will also get you access to the downstairs where they have exhibitions of things of local interest (while we were there, there was a photo exhibition and one of embroidered pictures of local sites). The staff at this museum were really friendly and when we visited the lady at the door came around with us and gave us a lot of interesting information about Lenin's life while in Samara and then took us downstairs and introduced us to the lady who'd done the embroidery. Embroidery may not be my thing but this lady did point out some places that we should visit and give us some information about the town. Tickets cost 50 rubles and the museum is open every day except Sunday from 9.00 - 17.00.

During summer head for the Volga river bank. Samara has kilometers of sandy beaches packed with people that swim, sun-bathe and drink (lots of) beer.
Sit down in one of the many tents, have a beer, eat shashlik and enjoy the sun going down across the river.

This is the Drama Theatre in Samara, an old building actually, built in about 1880, but still looks as a toy house. It's my favourite building in Samara. It is said to include items of two different styles which normally do no wgo together but every time I look at at I am surprised how harmonic and complete it loks!!!
Very attractive and charming i think.
It's in the centre of the city, so you'll find it easily.

The locals are very proud of the Zhiguli Brewery, which was the second industrial facility in the town. You can smell it a mile away. Bring your own bottles to be filled up for 14R per litre. You can buy bottles at the dried fish stand on the eastern side if need be. They have a swanky restaurant and a basic pub on site, and you can find the unfiltered version of Zhigulevskoye there.

This particular stretch of Volga where Samara is located is known for it's many beaches. Some are developed, some are not. Some are maintained, some are not. To the west of the Zhiguli Brewery a large strip of developed, maintained beach is a huge magnet on sunny summer days. There's a huge line of beer tents along the boardwalk above the beach and you can kill an afternoon walking, drinking, eating and watching rather effortlessly.

I took an afternoon walk along the Embankment by the Volga River. The weather was still a bit wintery, with just hints of the coming spring, but there was quite a crowd enjoying the day along the river. I hear that during the summer, the embankment is lined with tons of cafes and vendors, but there are a few cafes available even in the off-season. It is amazing that Samara is basically built up along one side of the river and the other side is almost empty. During the Soviet era, Samara was an important military center and supported the space program, so as part of the policy of keeping Samara a ?closed city,? no bridges were built. You have to travel 50km or so to find the first bridge. Locals take ferries across during the summer, or actually drive across the frozen river in winter.

Conveniently on one of the main streets in the center of town, the Samara Art Museum offers plenty for art lovers to see while visiting. The permanent collection includes a section devoted to local artists. And there is a large section of Russian paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries. Particularly interesting to me was the collection of modern Russian avant garde works. These colorful works are also in the best lit rooms in the museum, with large windows looking out onto the street. There are also rooms for temporary exhibitions. Once I saw was devoted to cartoon art from the Russian-Japanese wars. Interesting to see how the Russians stereotyped their Japanese enemy.